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"The potential for abuse is not an arguement against proper use" goes an old Roman saying, and it is as true today as when it was first uttered in Latin.

The push to made Sudafed a controlled substance comes from its potential to be used to make meth-amphetamines by drug dealers and ambitious young chemistry students. While the impulse of trying to limit the spread of meth is certainly a right and noble impulse, the knee jerk reaction of trying to control everything that could be used to make the drug adds needless complication to people simply trying to get medication for legitimate reasons. Not only that, but the logic behind banning all those things that could make drugs is illogical, especially when those substances are found in generally harmless substances such as sudafed.

Chemists, and those with basic training in chemistry can make drugs or bombs out of most household items. Do you have access to diesel fuel and fertilizer? Congratulations, with a bit of work, you've got a bomb! Does this mean we sell fertilizer only to those who pass background checks and make sure people present ID before buying Diesel fuel? Of course not. In similar manner, a chemistry major from any decent college could look in a janitor's closet and find the proper chemicals to make the Oklahoma City Bombing look positively benign.

If there is a demand for a good, economics dictates that there will be a supply to meet it. Hitting the supply (in this case sudafed) does not reduce the demand for the drug, but will keep Sudafed out of the hands of people who really just need the medicine. Drug dealers will find another way to make meth so long as there is a profit motive. Attacking the demand, that which drives profit, is a far more practical way of combating a drug problem than attacking supply. This is as true with Heroin and Cocaine as it is with Meth and Painkillers.

Regulations and restrictions have a place in society. We shouldn't be making Vicodin something available over the counter. But banning and controlling every substance that has the potential for abuse, and tying it into a rather large and ponderous government surveillance program to boot, will do little to accomplish the goal of such measures, reducing drug availability. We should be taking a page from decent economists on this one, reducing demand will make supply irrelevant.

Learn more about this author, Bryan Jennings.
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